LatinNews Daily Report - 17 October 2012

POLITICS& ECONOMY| Indigenous protesters leave Belo Monte site. On 16 October a Brazilian construction consortium, Norte Energia, announced that a group of indigenous protesters had left the construction site of the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in Brazil’s northern Pará state after reaching an agreement with the company. The protesters had been occupying the site for the past nine days. The agreement followed a meeting between the protesters and the company, organised by Brazil’s national indigenous foundation (Funai), a government agency. According to a statement by Norte Energia, the company agreed to the protesters’ demands for the construction of new schools, hospitals and housing for indigenous people who live in the Amazon. The Belo Monte project has triggered a number of protests by various indigenous and river-dwelling communities, who complain that the damning of the Xingu River will cause irreversible environmental damage to the Amazon rainforest, on which their livelihoods depend. However, the project, which is expected to add 11,233 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity to Brazil’s grid, is strongly backed by the government of President Dilma Rousseff which, despite various legal challenges to the project, is determined to see it through. In its statement Norte Energia also announced plans to hold a similar meeting today (17 October) with a group of local fishermen who have also protested against the damming of the Xingu.

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